Southern suburb leads housing recovery

Southern suburb leads housing recovery - The West Australian

Orelia resident Tennille Fuller and son Riley. Picture: Michael O'Brien/The West Australian

The southern suburb of Orelia has outperformed the rest of Perth during the June quarter, recording a 12.8 per cent rise in its median house price, preliminary figures from the Real Estate Institute of WA reveal.

REIWA president David Airey attributed Orelia's strong performance to affordability.

With a median sales price of $313,000, the battler suburb sat well below Perth's median house price of $475,000.

"People have cottoned on to the fact that it has great freeway access, it's a short drive to the train station in neighbouring Parmelia or to nearby Rockingham and the Cockburn Sound beach facilities," Mr Airey said.

"The area also has plenty of native bush, mature trees and well-kept parks and gardens which are great for families.

"But affordability has been the main driver. With houses for sale well under the Perth median price it's very attractive to first-homebuyers, in particular, who might be looking to buy an existing home rather than build."

Leonie Wood, of LJ Hooker Kwinana, said in addition to firsthomebuyers, Orelia had proved popular among buyers moving from other suburbs such as Leeming and Willetton.

"These are people wanting to reduce their mortgages but still like a good home," Ms Wood said.

First-time homebuyers Tennille Fuller and Peter Coetzee, who have a baby son Riley, said one brief drive through Orelia had them sold.

"After that drive I said, 'this is where I want to live'," Ms Fuller said.

They snapped up a five-year-old four-bedroom and two-bathroom home for $370,000.

"It was in our price range and there are a lot of new homes on offer," Ms Fuller said.

"We love the parks and there is a dog park down the road too, plus we're looking forward to the new (Kwinana Marketplace) being built, as it'll have a new library and shopping centre less than a kilometre from us.

"Also the train station is only a kilometre away and a bus goes straight to it so we can head straight into the city and Rockingham. We feel very central."

Figures for April, May and June also reveal sales turnover increased 25 per cent compared with the same time last year.Despite the boost in sales, the falling number of properties on the market was not being replenished by new stock.

Mr Airey said the number of homes for sale had dropped to just 12,150 at the end of June and currently sat at 11,000.

"This is well below the 14,300 properties we had on the market in March and sits below the equilibrium of around 12,000 listings, suggesting the market is swinging back to favour sellers," Mr Airey said.